


Waiting

by Rizeru_chan



Category: UNIQ (Band)
Genre: Bojoo, Kim Sungjoo - Freeform, Kim Sungjoo Uniq, M/M, Sungbo, Sungjoo - Freeform, Uniq - Freeform, Wang Yibo - Freeform, Wang Yibo Uniq, Yibo - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:58:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4828328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rizeru_chan/pseuds/Rizeru_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yibo likes Sungjoo and Sungjoo is being Sungjoo.</p><p>Sungjoo can't help being oblivious to everything, it's just the way he is. But why did Yibo have to fall in love with someone like that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Well...

Sungjoo walked outside to find a moving truck parked in front of the house next to his. Being the curious little child he was, he walked closer to the truck to see if anyone was there. As he neared the white vehicle, another car pulled up to the house. He stopped at the edge of his driveway to see who his new neighbors were going to be.

Out came a tall woman, young and pretty. She was smiling as she opened the back doors for a small blond. Sungjoo tilted his head and observed him. He couldn't have been older, maybe just a few years younger. The two made eye contact for a moment before the blond looked away. Sungjoo continued to stare until he heard his mother's squeal, he turned his head and saw her running out of the house with a grin on her face.

Sungjoo watched his mother run up to the other lady and hug her. When he looked at the little blond boy, he looked confused too. He watched his mother laugh and talk about how "it's been so long, you look amazing" and "Oh my gosh! He's so big!" for a while. When his mother signaled him to come closer, he stood for a moment, catching the slight fear in the blond's eyes. His mother called his name so he had no choice but to walk over. With every step he took, the more the other hid behind the tall lady.

"This is Sungjoo, he's only 3 years older than Yibo." She smiled once Sungjoo was close enough. He stood to the side and smiled at the blond.

"Ah, so he's 10. This is Yibo, he's a little shy, sorry about that." The lady said with a light tone. "Yibo, wanna say hi to Sungjoo?" She peered down at her son.

The blond boy came from behind her and stared at the two. He didn't say anything and but he looked a little mad. Sungjoo smiled nonetheless, he was just shy, right?

"Nice to meet you Yibo! Do you like video games?" Sungjoo saw the PSP almost falling out of his jacket pocket. Yibo nodded hesitantly, tucking the PSP into his pocket so it was more secure.

"C'mon Yibo! I have video games in my room!" Sungjoo held his hand out but Yibo didn't take it. Sungjoo waited a little more before grabbing his hand and dragging him into his house and up the stairs. Yibo tried to find a way to tell Sungjoo that he needed to get his stuff but Sungjoo wasn't listening.

-

"YIBOOOOOO" Sungjoo's loud voice rang through the headphones, he was almost certain Sungjoo would be the cause of his hearing loss. Nonetheless, he continued to click several keys on the keyboard while maneuvering the mouse across the screen. "GOOO GOOOO!" Sungjoo's voice echoed through his head. Eventually, the dreadful sound of their team losing reached both their ears. Yibo winced a little at Sungjoo's, loud, reaction. He took the headphones off and set them on the desk, leaning back against and running his fingers through his hair in frustration. It was their second loss that morning.

Sungjoo's screaming died down and he figured it was safe to put his headphones back on. "What happened? You had that."

"I could have focused better if you weren't yelling in my ear." he muttered.

"I always yell in your ear" the static reply came. Yibo rolled his eyes at the typical reply. It always happened whenever they lost, Sungjoo would blame Yibo for doing something wrong, Yibo would blame it on Sungjoo's yelling, and Sungjoo would use the 'I always yell' excuse. 

"YIBO TELL SUNGJOO TO GET READY FOR SCHOOL!" His mother's call reached his ears through his headphones.

"Are you ready for school? My mom told you to get ready." Yibo asked through the mic, he checked the time and saw that they had 5 more minutes to spare.

"Your mom is so nice! Always looking out for me like that." Sungjoo cooed from the other line. Yibo resisted the urge to tell Sungjoo that his mother probably planned it and she knew he only listened to Yibo's family when it came to school.

"Yeah, well get ready. You have five minutes" Yibo ended the Skype call before dancing his way downstairs to wait.

"Why do you two always insist on playing games in the morning? It would be better if you had a proper breakfast. Look at how thin you are!" His mother complained as he waltzed in. He stopped mid-turn to walk properly.

"Next time I'll bring food upstairs to eat while playing." he joked, his mother shook her head before handing him a bowl of fruits as Sungjoo came through the door.

"Take this on the way, don't starve yourselves." She said, waving them till they walked out the door.

"Mrs. Wang, I know Yibo's still a baby but I'm a Senior now remember?" He smiled and took the bowl of mixed fruits from Yibo's hands. The younger glared at him after bidding his mother goodbye. "Awww Yibo, don't look at me like that." Sungjoo fed the younger a grape before closing the door on the way out.

Yibo walked beside Sungjoo silently while the other ate fruits. The silence wasn't long or awkward, Sungjoo knew that Yibo wasn't talkative so he saw it as a chance to talk more.

Yibo grew up to be a quiet and observant person, he only ever acted out or caused attention when he was around Sungjoo.

Sungjoo, on the other hand, grew up to be loud and oblivious. He could only calm down when he was around Yibo.

They didn't have much in common, the two of them, Yibo loved dancing and although Sungjoo did too the latter preferred singing. Yibo was introverted while Sungjoo was extroverted. One always kept his opinions to himself whereas the other always had a say in everything. One was a follower while the other was a leader. One liked the other while the other didn't like him.

That's what Yibo often thought about. He wondered how he ended up liking Sungjoo. When he first realized his affection towards the Sungjoo, in 6th grade, he tried to play it off by telling himself it was because the other was his first friend. He thought about how he would always stare right at Sungjoo and give him all his attention while he talked, how he always waited for the elder in front of his house on the days he came home from school first. He noticed how he would always go along with whatever Sungjoo decided to do, no matter how silly it was. 

Like when he first dyed his hair blond in 7th grade. Sungjoo said it would make him look really good, especially since his hair was long. Eventually, Yibo asked his mother to take him to a salon. Ever since then Yibo kept it blond.

He thought about how much he knew about Sungjoo. How he was extremely childish, having a large collection of stuffed animals and loving skinship. How he would always complain when something didn't go his way but get over it in a matter of 5 seconds. He noticed the way Sungjoo always laughed when he felt nervous and the way his lips formed a pout when he was concentrating too hard. Yibo noticed a lot about Sungjoo but he didn't know why.

Why did he fall for Sungjoo? Was it the way the other always asked him for his opinion, or how he always got him to do things he didn't know he would like? Did he like Sungjoo because he was full of surprises yet very predictable? Or did he fall for the elder because he was incredibly confident yet extremely nice? Maybe it was just physical attraction, yeah, it could just be physical attraction.

Sungjoo grew to be at least 6 foot. His curly brown hair has always been cut long enough to simply cover his forehead or be styled up without too much hair gel.

Yibo preferred the days when he styled it up and to the side, it suited him. 

His facial structure caused a lot of girls to fall for him, maybe Yibo along with them, but who wouldn't fall for a soft jawline that could cut you once he took a bite out of something? Sungjoo knew that he was attractive too, and he used it to his advantage. During the summer, he would always wear tank tops to show off his shoulders and arms.

Yibo's thoughts drifted to the day before when he walked into Sungjoo's room to see the elder playing a video game while laying on his bed. His eyes shifted towards Yibo for a moment before they moved back to the T.V screen. He probably woke up a few moments before since he still had some bed head and sleep lingering in his eyes.

Yibo's eyes tried to tear away from the view of the elder's softly defined abs. Yibo gulped when he noticed Sungjoo's Kelvin Klein peeking out from underneath his pants. He looked at the screen before he could look at anything else. It took him a while to figure out what game it was but thankfully, Sungjoo didn't notice.

Even now, Yibo was having a hard time not staring at the elder. He wasn't wearing anything special, but it was enough to make Yibo's heart race the slightest bit. He was just wearing a plain green shirt and white jeans, Yibo didn't know why it made Sungjoo look so good, he just knew that it did.

Mentally slapping himself, he tried to refocus on what Sungjoo was saying. Something about the weather, he was probably complaining about how hot it was.

"Did you want some?" he heard. He looked up from his gaze on the floor and saw that Sungjoo was holding the almost-empty bowl of fruits toward him while trying to fit a piece of watermelon in his mouth, his cheeks puffed out to fit it all.

"Some? As in, the rest of this right?" Yibo took a strawberry and bit into it. Sungjoo chuckled before giving him the whole bowl.

"Fine, you can have the rest of it, but you have to throw the bowl away," He said, licking his fingers before drying them on his shirt. Yibo ate the rest of the fruits while Sungjoo continued to talk about how much fun it's going to be now that they are going to the same school again. "You aren't really going to classes today and you get your schedule next week. The next three days are kind of like a prologue, you like prologues so it should be all good." He nudged the other boy.

"What's wrong with prologues? They help you win the game." Yibo defended.

"No they don't, they're just a waste of time, but that's not the point. High school isn't a game, Yibo." He put his hands behind his head as they walked into the school grounds. Yibo looked at him for a moment and thought that it could be true, but then again, Sungjoo isn't always right.

"But life is" Yibo shot back, causing Sungjoo to bend over and laugh.

"That's deep Yibo, is that what goes on in your head? A bunch of deep phrases that you read?" Sungjoo made hand gestures as if Yibo wouldn't be able to understand him if he didn't. Yibo ignored him and continued his way towards the classrooms.

"There are a lot of girls that like that kind of thing you know," Sungjoo noticed he was being left behind and jogged to catch up, "deep emotional guys." He continued after matching Yibo's pace. "Plus you're quiet, there are girls that like that too. The aloof ones that give off the cool vibe. You're going to be so popular!" Sungjoo cooed, running in front of him and squishing his cheeks as if he was 3. Yibo stared at him for a moment, his body was telling him to stay still but of course, he didn't. Sungjoo was going to reach and ruffle his hair but Yibo slapped it away, making sure his hair would stay intact.

"So mean~" Sungjoo pouted, rubbing his hand to sooth the fake pain. Yibo couldn't help but smile a little at the childish acts. "Why do I seem more excited than you?"

"Maybe because you are." Yibo shrugged, walking towards the nearest trash can to dispose of the bowl.

"WHAAAT?" Sungjoo screamed, gathering the attention of a few people. Yibo tilted his head down, trying not to make any eye contact. Sungjoo noticed and quickly apologized. "Sorry," He said, walking closer to Yibo, "but why aren't you excited? It's high school! New experiences, new people, and lots of change!" Sungjoo grinned, throwing his hands up in the air even though Yibo wasn't looking.

Yibo shrugged, he didn't think that high school would be any different from any other school, besides the fact, he'd be hanging out with Sungjoo at lunch instead of himself. "Would it really be any different? It didn't make you any different."

"Ah..." Sungjoo rubbed the back of his head, realizing it was true, he was outgoing as a freshman and he's still outgoing now, not to mention that he still only hangs out with Yibo. "Okay, bad example, but you still meet a lot more people. It could change you!" Sungjoo pressed his finger to Yibo's chest, hard enough to make the other cover it afterwards.

"Hm, I'll keep that in mind and make sure I don't change," Yibo grinned. Sungjoo opened his mouth to give him a lecture but the bell rang. Yibo waved at the retreating Sungjoo before making way to his own class.

'Lots of change huh?' Yibo thought on his way to the first introductory class.


	2. Ache

Yibo knew that he was in love with Sungjoo, but that didn't mean he wouldn't deny it. He'd been telling himself that the little crush he developed over the years didn't mean anything, he was just over analyzing his actions.

He told himself that he was just being a good friend as he did several things for the elder. Good friends let each other get away with childish actions while accepting anything they asked for. Friends do each other's homework and occasionally wait 3 extra hours after school when the other got detention, it's not like Yibo minded, though.

Plus, it wasn't like Yibo had the guts to go up to Sungjoo and ask him out anyway. He would either freeze up or ask about a completely unrelated topic. On top of the fact he couldn't ask, he knew for a fact that Sungjoo's brain had never even thought of asking him. One of the many reasons Yibo denied his own feelings was because he didn't want to fall in love with an oblivious idiot. Especially if that oblivious idiot has the name of Kim Sungjoo.

Yibo tried to remember the last time Sungjoo got an idea before he did, or if Sungjoo noticed anything different without Yibo pointing it out for him. It just wasn't a good idea to fall in love with someone like that. The last time Yibo remembered Sungjoo caught onto something without his help was when he first changed his hair color. He had spent a few months quieter than usual while touching his hair. Sungjoo spoke to him about it one day, reassuring the younger that if he didn't like it, he was free to change it. He also remembered Sungjoo complimented him on it repeatedly after as he was considering. As he spoke, he would add small comments like, "I love your hair" and "Your hair suits you" or "It looks amazing."

Still, Sungjoo started doing that months after Yibo had got his hair dyed, so there wasn't even a chance Sungjoo would notice Yibo's little crush if Yibo never brought it up, or acted any differently.

'Just don't act differently, that can't be so hard.' Yibo told himself as he looked up at the sky. He was standing in the same area he grew accustomed to waiting for Sungjoo at, but he hasn't stayed more than an hour after the last bell for a long time. Sungjoo had kept him waiting, the last time was a month ago when he got detention. Bringing his eyes back down, his attention was drawn to a small mark on his shoes, he would have to clean it later.

Sighing, he checked his phone then looked around, 'It's 3:10 and Sungjoo still isn't here. Does he have detention again? He did his homework, I was there when he finished, and I even checked to make sure he did it all...' Yibo's thoughts drifted and he checked the time again, 2 minutes passed. He checked the area around him one more time just to make sure he wasn't the one messing up, before unlocking his phone and scrolling down to Sungjoo's number. Right when he was about to press the call button, he heard his name being called.

Looking up for the 10th time since he had been there, he finally saw him. He gave Sungjoo a look as the other ran towards him, bag flopping behind his back. Yibo let Sungjoo take his time regaining his breath and energy, but that didn't mean he was going to let the elder go without an explanation. When he saw Sungjoo calming himself, he turned slowly and began his way home, knowing Sungjoo would follow him like an obedient dog.

He was right, Sungjoo made a small noise when he saw Yibo already walking, but he followed and clamped his hand down on the younger's shoulder when he was close enough.

Yibo grunted, letting Sungjoo know that his explanation better be good. He saw Sungjoo rub the back of his neck and he heard the nervous laugh he loved.

'I mean, I don't love it' Yibo thought, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"So..." Sungjoo finally started, "I was just sitting in my last period, thinking about how I wanted to get home as fast as I could-"

"Sungjoo," Yibo's monotone voice cut him off, telling him to get to the point.

"Fine, there's this new cute guy in my class and I wanted to get his number." The small mutter came out of thin lips and Yibo stopped mid-step, he actually moved back a little. He heard Sungjoo's nervous laugh again and he willed himself not to look into his eyes.

"Okay, I know you might be mad at the stupid reason to keep you waiting-"

'That's right Yibo, don't let him know you like him, you're mad because you were waiting for a whole hour. You waited for an hour because Sungjoo found a cute guy... He found a cute guy...' Yibo took a deep breath and listened to the last part.

"but I promise, it won't happen again." Sungjoo rushed the last part because Yibo had started walking again.

'I'm mad because of the stupid reason, I'm mad because of the stupid reason. Not because of the new guy, get it together Yibo, it's not the end of the world.' Yibo ranted inside his brain, suddenly there were hands on both his shoulders and he was forced to stop walking.

Sungjoo jerked him back, Yibo hadn't said anything, it wasn't really that bad was it?

"I'm sorry okay?" Sungjoo tilted his head slightly since he was only a few centimeters taller than the other, "Yibo," Sungjoo urged, seeing the anger in the younger's eyes.

'Don't look at him Yibo, don't, DON'T' Yibo's eyes flicked to meet others and he just hoped that his fast heart rate was from walking too fast and being jerked back. "Hm?" He hummed.

"Are you really mad about it?" Sungjoo asked, worry laced in his voice. Yibo looked away, fighting a blush. Thankfully, his body wasn't feeling too mean at the moment and his face cooled down.

"I just... have a lot of homework, and I need to get it done right away, I'm not that mad don't worry. I'm just a little stressed." He mumbled clear enough for Sungjoo to understand.

"Ohhh~" Sungjoo sang, switching his mood immediately. Yibo moved out of the elder's grip and began walking again.

'That wasn't a complete lie, I do have a lot of homework to get done, it's just not due till Friday.' Yibo tried to take away the guilt of lying to the elder, 'but it wasn't a complete lie' he told himself again.

"So what about you? We've been in school for a good 3 months now, there has to be someone in this school you find attractive." Sungjoo threw his hands up in the air as he emphasized 'someone'. Yibo turned his head to look at him for a while before facing the sidewalk again and shrugging.

"Really?! Not even one person managed to catch the almighty Yibo's eye?" Sungjoo slouched. He heard a small laugh from Yibo and mentally bore a hole into the blond hair.

"Is it really that surprising I don't have a crush?" Yibo asked out loud instead of in his head, surprising himself, why did he always do that around Sungjoo?

"YES! It is!" Sungjoo flailed his arms in frustration and caused Yibo to laugh a little louder. "It's not just because you don't have one, it's because you've never had one!" Sungjoo's been emphasizing a lot of words today.

"Who says I've never had a crush?" Yibo challenged? There he goes again, saying stupid stuff because of Sungjoo.

"Tell me who your last crush was." Sungjoo deadpanned. Yibo opened his mouth, about to answer with a simple three letter word but it retreated faster than it had appeared in his mind. He tilted his head down and blushed, staying quiet. Like always, Sungjoo took his actions the wrong way.

"My point exactly, you have never had a crush, to think that hormones would have caught up to you by now, are you a late bloomer Yibo? You can't be a late bloomer, you've already grown so tall. Just how are you controlling hormones?" Sungjoo's questions came one after another and Yibo had to bite his tongue in order to keep quiet. His body agreed to shrug instead.

"Fine then, be like that, but one day, one day Wang Yibo, you will have a crush, and you will tell me," Sungjoo grinned and stuck his finger in the air dramatically as they turned into their col de sac. Yibo watched him run into his house before continuing to his house with a small frown.

'One day, I hope I can tell you' he hoped that on some crazy way, his thoughts would reach Sungjoo's and everything would be easier, or potentially more complicated, but, at least, Sungjoo would know that he did in fact, have a crush.

'Just a crush' he said to himself, trying to ignore the pain in his chest when he remembered Sungjoo talking about the new kid in his class.

-

"Yixuan" Sungjoo suddenly said as they were eating lunch the next day.

"Hm?" Yibo looked up from his phone screen briefly, making eye contact with Sungjoo for a second before returning his attention to the game he was playing "Go on, I'm listening"

Sungjoo peered at the device for a while, watching the graphics create motions of swords clanking together and arrows finding their ways to targets. Yibo didn't hear Sungjoo continue so he sighed and paused the game.

"I was listening before, but are you happy now?" Yibo gave Sungjoo a blank face and set his phone down on the table after turning it off. Sungjoo watched him with careful eyes as if Yibo was planning to just zone him out, but he knew better.

"Yixuan, he's the guy I told you about yesterday,"

'Don't react, don't react.' Yibo was able to keep his blank face while nodding. "You know this how?" He raised his right brow.

"I... heard it around." Sungjoo scratched the back of his neck like always. Yibo, as usual, didn't say anything, hiding his feelings was a lot easier when you're naturally quiet. It was one of the many times he was glad of being an introvert.

"Hm." Yibo nodded and picked his phone back up to go back to his game. Sungjoo quickly slammed his hand down on Yibo's phone to prevent him from picking it up. The blond's hand retreated and he slowly brought his gaze back to Sungjoo.

"You're not going to ask me about him?" Sungjoo pouted and brought the phone to his lap, hiding it from its owner.

Yibo stared at him for a while, trying to give the hint that he wasn't really interested but he forgot about the fact Sungjoo was an oblivious idiot.

'An oblivious idiot you managed to fall in love with' his brain reminded. Rolling his eyes at himself and Sungjoo he hummed.

"Well since you asked so nicely," Sungjoo grinned, resting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. "He has black hair and a slim face. He's thin and seems to always have a gentle smile on his lips. He's super tall too!" Sungjoo's eyes lit up and Yibo felt a slight pang in his chest when he saw it.

"Now that I think about it..." Sungjoo rubbed his chin, "He might actually be taller than me!" smiled as he stared off into the clouds, dreaming about the perfect new student while Yibo tried to snatch his phone back but it slipped between Sungjoo's thighs and there was NO way he was going to reach between them, even if the feeling in his chest got worse.

-

The walk home wasn't that great either, Sungjoo continued to talk about his crush the whole way home and Yibo tried to zone him out with the one earbud providing him the musical distraction.

"Today he looked so good! It's so sad that we only have the last period together, but at least, I have something to look forward to during school besides lunch" Sungjoo babbled into Yibo's unoccupied ear.

'Just a few more steps...' Yibo could see the entrance to the col de sac from where they were walking.

"He looked so nice in what he was wearing, though, the simple black checkered sweater and blue jeans, Yibo you should have seen him!" Sungjoo balled his fists and brought them closer to his face.

Every word Sungjoo said about Yixuan brought Yibo closer and closer to barfing all over himself. When they reached the col de sac opening he bolted for his door, almost feeling sorry for the love-struck Sungjoo too busy thinking about Yixuan's jean sweater and checkered jeans.

Almost.


	3. I Knew It

Yibo was in his room being his bored self. The homework due on Friday was finished an hour ago so now he didn't know what to do. He wasn't up to talk to Sungjoo about his new crush, his heart had been distracted doing homework but the more he wondered what he could do, the more he thought about Sungjoo. Leading to an endless spiral of hurt.

Yibo was laying on his bed, facing the ceiling just wondering why. He wondered why he had moved here. Why Sungjoo came up to him day after day when he first moved. He wondered why he had to have the house right next to Sungjoo's, why he silently fell for him, and why he is unable to get up.

'Why am I like this?' He questioned covering his eyes with his arm. He knew he needed a distraction, he couldn't bear thinking about the other more than he already had. He checked his phone battery, '87%. Good enough' he sat upright slowly, avoiding a head rush.

Every step he took down the stairs felt like the loudest thing he could ever do, as if he were afraid Sungjoo would magically hear him from next door and come busting into the room complaining about how 'You lied to me' and 'If you didn't want to hang out with me you could have just said so.'

Sungjoo was a basic person, easy to figure out, and Yibo did not want to deal with a complaining Sungjoo after hearing about the other's crush.

He saw his mother typing something on her laptop, she looked up for a while with eyes holding a question.

"Dance." He said simply. She nodded and returned her attention back to the laptop screen. Yibo checked to make sure he had his phone and earbuds before grabbing his key on the way out.

He was just walking down to the dance studio not too far from his col de sac. All he had to do was cross the road, walk down the left side, turn left towards the school and some point after, he would be able to see it. If he got lost he would just call his mom to give him directions or look them up on his phone. He was almost positive he wouldn't need to do that, though, he saw it every day on the way to school.

The first step out the door he remembered his house was on the inner part of the col de sac, which meant he would have to pass in front of Sungjoo's window. That means there's a chance he could be seen. His eyes trailed towards the back of his house, if he jumped the fence, the sidewalk there would be a safer route.

"Oh, Yibo. Did you change your mind?" the sound of typing filled his ears again and he smiled sheepishly.

"I told Sungjoo I won't be able to do anything today because of homework..." He rubbed the back of his neck, he was picking up Sungjoo's habits. His mother turned to look at him, he could have sworn that raised brow was wondering about said homework.

"It was easier than I thought it would be, I finished earlier than I thought I would..." He answered honestly, "and I don't want to disturb Sungjoo because he barely does his homework in the first place." he dropped his arm once he noticed what he was doing. His mother looked at him a while longer, her fingers typing the whole time, it freaked him out just a tad bit.

He held his breath and hoped that his mother wouldn't try to convince him to hang out with Sungjoo.

'Let him do his homework, let him, let him, let him...' Yibo willed.

"Don't forget to lock that door" her response sounded more like a sigh but Yibo took the chance, bolting towards his backyard before his mother could change her mind.

Still on the paranoid side, Yibo carefully slid the glass door open, watching it as if it would shatter any second. He crept over to the wooden fence, it was up to his neck and the paint had been chipped over the years.

Taking a deep breath, he felt the top part of the wood, experimentally applying pressure to check for possible splinters. His jaw tightened as his feet repeatedly left the ground in a hop. Once he had enough momentum he locked his arms and swung is leg over the fence at the same time. He hissed when he felt a scratch on his calf. When is feet connected to the floor again he crouched down to inspect his leg. There wasn't much, it wasn't even bleeding.

He dusted himself off and looked around to find where he was. Sungjoo's house was still in front of him so he went straight. If he weren't crouching right now, he had a good chance of getting caught. Cars passed on the road next to him so he kept his face turned towards the fence, which probably wasn't helping the sketchy image.

When he reached the end of the fence, he checked to make sure he couldn't be seen by Sungjoo's window. 'Coast clear' he told himself. He stood up properly and stretched before finally crossing the road towards his school. He checked his phone battery again and saw it went down 2%. Still good enough, pulling his earbuds around as well, he scrolled through his SoundCloud playlists, wondering which one he should listen to.

Going with his 'Favorite' playlist, he let his phone sleep and he kept his hands in his pockets along with his phone and keys. He wondered if the dance studio would let him in, what if they didn't? He figured he would just go to the park farther down the road if that happened.

The trip was silent, despite the music coming from his earbuds, Yibo wasn't used to it. He was waiting for Sungjoo to come sprinting behind him to tell a story. He wasn't used to being on his own. It had happened a lot when he was little but when he came to Seoul, Sungjoo wanted to go everywhere with him, he wouldn't leave Yibo alone.

He even remembered the time Sungjoo wanted to go to the bathroom with him because 'He didn't want him to be lonely' of course, he got mad and his mother had to break up the fight. It was the only time Yibo was ever really mad at the elder. And after that happened, Sungjoo had stayed away from him for a week.

Yibo didn't pay any mind to it at that time, but his mother had forced him to go apologize. He wished he didn't, maybe if his mother didn't tell him to go apologize, Sungjoo would still be ignoring him and he would have never fallen for him.

'If only' Yibo sighed, reaching the dance studio and pulling out his earbuds.

"Hello, you look new." A man with tan skin said behind the counter. Yibo looked at him and immediately saw the size of his arms. Feeling slightly intimidated, he nodded and inched towards the counter while fiddling with his earbuds. "You here to dance right? Or are you here to pick someone up?" the man checked something on the computer screen in front of him before looking at Yibo again. "Children's class doesn't end for another 20 minutes, you can stay, though." The man was getting more confused as silence passed.

"Uh..." Yibo finally managed to bring out, "Do you have an empty studio I can just dance in? I'm not here to take a class..." He looked away shyly and the man behind the counter smiled at him gently, a complete contrast from his arms.

"Of course! Just," He pulled out a clipboard, "make sure you fill out this form. You put your name here, email, and phone number."

Yibo pulled one of the fancy flower pens out of the vase and began to fill it out, breathing a bit faster than usual because of his nervousness. After he put in all the necessary information he set the pen back into the vase and waited for the man, Wenhan, to give him further instructions.

"Okay..." Wenhan squinted at the name, "Yibo, you can go to the left and look for an empty room there, I think there's only one other person that asked to use a practice room so you should be able to find one easily." Wenhan gave another small smile and Yibo was calm enough to return it before walking down the hall.

Yibo peeked around the corner at first, as if he were a little kid afraid a monster would pop out, an empty hallway greeted him and he sighed in relief. He made his way down the empty hall and the tint in the window informed him it was a one-way mirror.

He peered into the window of Room 7 and saw the boy Wenhan was probably talking about. He wasn't doing much at the moment, just sitting and scrolling through his phone. He was probably looking for a song to dance to. Yibo wanted to catch a glimpse of what he dances like, but he was paying to be there and he wasn't going to waste his time. Checking Room 9, he saw the purple walls occupying no shadow, and there was no reflection in the one wall mirror, so he was good.

He wondered if he would be able to hear the music from the other room, he faintly remembered the speakers next to the boy in Room 7. If the sound came through the walls, he would just turn up the volume on his earbuds.

As he was scrolling through his dance playlist, he was trying to decide whether he would just groove or try to come up with an actual choreography. As he clicked on his favorite song, he shrugged to himself and began stretching. He wasn't doing any complicated stretches, just the simple leg, bicep, triceps, neck, and back stretches.

He set his phone in his pocket and zipped it up for safety. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to get the rhythm of the song even though he's heard it 1000 times before.

"Usher baby~ Yeah man." The music came through his earbuds and he began to dance, forgetting all about Sungjoo.

-

Surprisingly, as they walked to school the next day, Sungjoo didn't say anything about Yixuan, he was complaining about how bored he was the day before because of Yibo staying in his house to do homework.

"All the people on League were annoying! Telling me that I needed to shut up about everything and that me, I was annoying." Sungjoo crossed his arms at the emphasized words and Yibo couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Well..." Yibo started teasingly, earning a gasp and a punch to the shoulder from Sungjoo. "Ow, I wasn't going to say anything." He tried to hold his laugh in while rubbing his arm.

"Yeah right!" Sungjoo shoved him a little closer to the street in mock anger, "You better make it up to me." he threatened

"What did I do?" Yibo rose his voice in defense.

"You left me! To do homework!"

"Oh, okay, I'll just not do my homework and fail high school so I can hang out with you" Yibo rolled his eyes knowing how Sungjoo would answer.

"Exactly! That sounds perfect to me!" Sungjoo slung his arm around Yibo's shoulders before he spotted a certain senior in front of them. He immediately bolted towards the other, leaving Yibo in the dust.

"I was joking..." He trailed off before turning his head and body in another direction. He didn't want to stay around to watch so he left for his first period, there was no harm in being a little early.

-

When lunch came around, Yibo was waiting for Sungjoo to come out of the line like the does every day. Today he was taking unusually long but Yibo just figured there were too many people causing traffic.

A few moments later he felt a vibration coming from somewhere on his body. He patted around for a moment before his hand rested on his phone, he wondered why his mother was calling him during school. He looked around one more time before picking up his backpack and heading towards the bathroom. He wasn't going to have a conversation with his mom over the phone with a lot of background noise, and he surely wasn't going to leave his backpack all alone if he didn't even know when Sungjoo would come back.

When he reached the bathroom it was too late to answer the call so he redialed as fast as he could. "Hello?" He said as he moved further into the bathroom but close enough to the exit so that he was able to see the table he just left.

"Hi, sweety" his mother's voice came from the other line. Yibo smiled because he could hear one on his mother's face.

"What are you calling for?"

"Nothing big, but remember when I was on the computer yesterday?" Yibo nodded even though his mother couldn't see it, "Well, I was actually searching up dance schools for you to go to." His eyes widened at his mother's words and he quickly raised the call volume to make sure he wasn't hearing things. "There's one that would be happy to take you, but it's a high school program, so that means you'll be leaving sometime this year to go study."

Yibo kept silent on his line and thought over it, he would have to leave the neighborhood to go to a dance academy, he would have to leave Sungjoo. Speaking of the devil, the curly haired boy popped into Yibo's line of vision, pulling something, someone, along with him. Yibo grit his teeth and watched them from the bathroom. Some of the students that entered gave him looks but he paid them no mind.

Sungjoo quickly brought Yixuan to the table and sat him down, he placed his bag down at the usual spot and Yixuan put his bag where Yibo would usually sit.

'If he notices, I'll stay, if he doesn't...' Yibo's thoughts were cut short when his mother's voice rang through his phone.

"Sorry, I'm just thinking about it..." he kept watching the two, he was waiting for Sungjoo to say something about his absence, to look around, to look for him, but none of it came. Sungjoo acted with Yixuan the same way he acted with everyone else. He watched Sungjoo laugh and listen to Yixuan as he spoke.

"Take your time honey, you can tell me when you get home if you figure out by then." Yibo looked at them for a few more moments before sighing.

"I'll go, when do I leave?" He asked, picking his bag up again to head towards the library.

"Well, the latest you could leave is sometime during November." His mother answered. Yibo nodded again. "Oh, and Sungjoo can't come with you." She added. Yibo couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"That's fine."


	4. Torture

Yibo continuously tapped on his phone screen, trying to escape the awkward tension. He could feel Yixuan staring at him trying to say something and he silently cursed Sungjoo for leaving them alone. He could have brought Yixuan with him... or better yet, he could have gotten Yixuan to sit somewhere else.

'Just let him sit here, Sungjoo's just getting food' He scolded himself and looked up briefly.

It was as if life perfectly timed his instincts because Yixuan looked at him too. Yibo looked down shyly and continued to play the game on his phone. He saw Yixuan open his mouth in his peripherals and slowly raised his chin again, pausing his game.

Yixuan kept his mouth open for a while, Yibo thought that a fly would land inside. His lips finally moved and Yibo subconsciously straightened his back.

"What are you playing?"

Yibo broke eye contact and looked down at his lap as if he forgot he was playing in the first place. "Uh... Clash of clans..." he put his phone in his pocket and folded his hands in an act to show his attention. Yixuan wasn't a bad guy, Yibo stated. He should, at least, try to talk to the guy before disliking him.

"Fun..." Yixuan smiled, Yibo offered one back but he didn't know what else to say, Yixuan seemed to be pulling his lunch out of his bag and Yibo reached for his phone again but Yixuan asked him another question.

"Where's your lunch?" Yibo froze, could feel the notifications at his fingertips but Yixuan was still trying to make small talk.

"I... don't bring a lunch, I eat at home." He saw Yixuan shake his head and he prepared himself for the scolding.

"That's no good! You're so thin, you need to eat." Yibo thought about his mother and how she would always scold him like this. "Here" Yixuan held out an orange and bobbed it in his hands a few times as Yibo stared at it. "It's not going to bite you" He teased.

Yibo laughed softly, "No thank you-"

"Take it." He commanded, and Yibo did as he was told.

"Thank you" He mumbled, staring at the fruit again. He still didn't want to eat it, but Yixuan was staring holes into his face with every passing second. Slowly, Yibo began to peel off the skin, peeking up at the senior before focusing back on the orange.

"You guys are so quiet and boring" A tray slammed down on the table, threatening to spill all the food Sungjoo took his sweet time to get.

'Finally' Yibo's inner voice groaned and he set the orange on Sungjoo's tray before standing up to throw the peelings away, he slowly walked over to the trash can to make sure that Sungjoo would eat it. He turned his head and sure enough, the orange slices were in his mouth and Yixuan was trying to scold him. Smiling softly, he took his time to come back as well.

"That was supposed to be for Yibo" Yixuan whined from the other end of the table. Sungjoo shook his head and waved him off.

"Yibo eats bucket loads at home, trust me, he just doesn't like the school food or taking from other people. And if he does, I gave him food once, he'll bring you a buffet in return. Don't worry much, Yibo knows how to take care of himself." Sungjoo smiled and finished the orange. Yibo pulled his phone back out, knowing he wouldn't be talking much in the conversation, like always. He saw Yixuan looking at him again and he tried to ignore the rest of the glances

"Yibo?" Yixuan questioned. Yibo looked up, a little dazed, he got so into the game he was actually able to block out the conversation.

"Hm?" He hummed, still holding the game in his hands, hoping he misheard.

"What about you?" Yixuan smiled sweetly. Yibo furrowed his brows trying to see if his brain was able to catch the topic.

"Don't even bother asking him." Sungjoo spoke up, "He's always like this, he doesn't really like to talk, he just likes to listen." When Yibo nodded, Yixuan was still expecting an answer.

"What was the question?" He put his phone in his back pocket so he could pay more attention. Sungjoo looked at him with a raised brow, he wasn't expecting Yibo to answer.

"What are you going to be doing for the break?" The pitch in his voice made it sound like he was unsure. Yibo immediately thought about the dance academy but he held his tongue. He didn't want Sungjoo to know about it.

"I'm not sure, I don't really plan things ahead... And the break isn't for a long time." Yixuan nodded in understanding. Yibo wondered to himself why he didn't say anything about the dance school. It wasn't like Sungjoo could stop him, by reacting all sad, telling Yibo about how much he was going to miss him and eventually cause Yibo to stay. Maybe he could stop him. "What about you?" He asked for politeness.

"I'm planning on working heh, I gotta save up for college you know?" Yibo tilted his head up for a long time as if to say 'oh' then looked at the happily eating Sungjoo wondering what he was going to do over the break.

"Just hang out, you guys are going to be here, so it's going to be a normal break, Yixuan maybe you could pay for all of us to go to an amusement park!" Sungjoo grinned. Yixuan made a face.

"Well, if you guys really want to go I guess I could pay-"

"He was kidding," Yibo interrupted, "he does that. Don't pay for this idiot." the words came out before he could process them in his brain.

"What?" Amusement in Yixuan's voice was evident as Sungjoo leaned over in attempts to strangle the younger.

"How rude!" He was able to land a small pat on Yibo's shoulder but nothing that would cause too much damage. "I'm amazing and you both know it." Yixuan caught Yibo rolling his eyes and he snickered.

"Hey!" Sungjoo grumbled. Yibo smirked a little, trying not to notice that the bell signalling the end of lunch was about to ring and Sungjoo hasn't said one thing about him being gone yesterday.

-

His teacher in 5th period was going over a test he aced so his thoughts took the chance to think of the event at lunch, or the lack of event.

He could see exactly why Sungjoo liked Yixuan. He was good looking, and really sweet at the same time. It was like he was an angel. Yixuan looked out for people and cared for them if that's the type of person Sungjoo goes for then there's really no chance for Yibo.

Yibo was another opposite to Yixuan, Yibo avoided conversations where Yixuan tries to make them. He doesn't offer things to others while it seems Yixuan would give up a whole buffet to a homeless person even if he was starving. Yixuan was such a nice person and Yibo is just not nice compared to him. He sighed and stared out the window, imagining what Sungjoo would do if he left.

Yixuan's going to be hanging around them for the time being, he guessed it was better if he left, Sungjoo was obviously going to date Yixuan in the future, they looked cute together anyway. He guessed that Sungjoo would be bothered by it for a while, wondering why he never told the other, but he would get over it in no time. Sungjoo's not the kind of person to dwell on things. He always looked on the positive side, it was one of the qualities Yibo liked about him.

He would come back some day, he knew he would, he had to. He would come back after the dance academy, Sungjoo would be in college already and he would come back to attend, maybe Sungjoo would have forgotten about him by then. 3 years is a big difference, Sungjoo graduates when Yibo enters, there's really no time they would have together, so it wouldn't make that big of a difference when he left. Sungjoo and Yixuan would graduate at the same time, they could go to college together. Yibo will always be behind.

-

Yibo neared his usual waiting spot, Sungjoo had been coming late these days. Yibo was almost 100% sure it was because he was talking to Yixuan after school, he figured he was becoming more of a third wheel. A feeling caught in his throat when he realized, one of these days Sungjoo's going to walk home with Yixuan instead of him. He stopped before reaching his destination. Sungjoo would rather hang out with Yixuan instead of him. In a way, it hurt to know that he was the second choice to his only choice, even if he saw it coming.

He silently laughed at himself for overreacting. Sungjoo wouldn't completely forget about him, he was his best friend. He had a crush, it's only normal for him to throw everything else away. He kicked a rock in his path and watched it skip in front of him. He knew he was overreacting, but he couldn't keep the bad thoughts out of his head.

Sometimes he really hated how much he liked Sungjoo.

-

"Oh, Yibo right?" Wenhan looked up from the computer screen, Yibo smiled and blushed while nodding his head. "Welcome back, you brought... a backpack?" He pointed to the object and Yibo blushed more, stuttering.

"Y-yeah... Are they not allowed?" He backed away towards the door and Wenhan immediately stretched his arms out as if he was able to pull the other back.

"They're allowed! Just, we don't have space for you to do homework, and if you use a room, you'll have to pay for the whole time you're in there..." Wenhan smiled sympathetically.

"I just wanted to dance again, this place was on the way and I just wanted to get rid of some stress before doing homework." Yibo walked towards the counter and picked up a flower pen to sign another sheet but Wenhan took it from his fingers and shook his head.

"You signed once, you don't have to sign again, as long as I see you at least." He gestured towards the hallway, "It's all yours, have fun." He smiled once more before sitting and typing away on the computer.

The door opened and Yibo immediately turned to look at who came in. He just finished one of the dance routines so as he turned, small puffs came from his mouth. As he got his breathing back to normal he noticed that the person that walked in was the same person he tried to watch the other day.

"Hi, I just wanted to come in and tell you that you are a really great dancer." Yibo stared at him for a while, he knew he was a decent dancer, but he wasn't expecting someone to come in and tell him. Brown eyes widened and quickly moved towards the door, "Sorry! You can get back to whatever you were doing." He reached for the door nob and Yibo was barely able to mumble a short 'wait'.

The other heard him, though, he let his hand drop from the handle and he turned around. "I'm not going to kill you, you can calm down." He added after seeing the fearful look on the other's face. A small smile was able to reach Yibo's lips as the other physically relaxed every bone in his body.

"You look really intimidating," The other pointed out once he straightened again, "but I guess that helps when you perform right?" He grinned and set his backpack down, it was the first time Yibo noticed the object. Yibo nodded and stared at the bag, why had he told the other to stay again?

"Oh..." He said to himself. His eyes slowly crawled up the other to meet his eyes, "Thank you..." he was able to say.

"You're shy aren't you?" The other said, slowly kneeling to pull out his stuff. Yibo nodded, the other wasn't looking at him, he didn't know what to do. He shifted his weight awkwardly, wondering what the other was doing. When he finally looked up he saw how uncomfortable Yibo was. His eyes widened again and he screamed an apology.

"It's okay..." Yibo said he watched him pull out the speakers he used the other day, but where was his phone?

"I'm Seungyoun by the way," he beckoned Yibo to come over. When Yibo didn't move he laughed while hanging his head, Yibo couldn't help but blush in embarrassment, "I'm not going to hurt you, I just wanted to know what song you were dancing to." That was when Yibo remembered he was wearing ear buds the whole time. With stiff limbs, Yibo made his way towards the other so he could give him his phone. "Thanks," Seungyoun said with a big grin.

When Chris Brown's 'Take You Down' blasted through the walls Yibo suddenly remembered how sexual the song was. He opened his mouth to explain but he saw Seungyoun slowly moving to the beat. He shut his mouth and watched for a while, Seungyoun was just bobbing his head, making small movements with his shoulders at some parts. There was no real order to his movements. When the song ended Yibo finally initiated a conversation.

"How long were you watching?" He blushed, knowing there was one part of the song that included the floor.

"Not long, I was only able to see the ending, why?" Seungyoun looked up at him while he tried to put the speakers back in his bag.

"Nothing... I could have just... unplugged my earbuds, though, it would have been easier..." Yibo checked the time on the manual clock, he needed to leave soon.

"Yeah, but there's no fun in that, it's better if it's louder." Seungyoun gave Yibo's phone back before leaving the room. Yibo thought it was weird Seungyoun didn't say bye. He plugged his earbuds back in before heading out.

"Done already?" Wenhan asked, clicking some buttons to bring in Yibo's cost. Pulling out a 20, he nodded and gave the bill to Wenhan.

"Thanks," Wenhan gave the change back, "Have a nice day," the common greeting along with a smile made Yibo smile back.

He walked to his house feeling better, dancing always cleared his mind and put him in a better mood. His thoughts were finally able to move away from Sungjoo as he wondered what the dance academy would be like, who would he meet? Would Seungyoun be there? He hoped there would be at least one person he knew. If he was stuck with a bunch of random people he didn't think he would be able to say anything. He wasn't much of a talker, and he got intimidated easily.

He wondered when he would leave, he didn't want to stick around to see Sungjoo all over Yixuan so he hoped it would be sometime soon. As he rounded the corner he was hoping Sungjoo would be at his door, waiting for him to explain where he went. He wanted Sungjoo to worry about him. But the other wasn't there, he was able to walk to his house and through the door without someone yelling his name or jumping him. He kicked off his shoes and dragged himself upstairs.

He tried to be so absorbed in his homework that he wouldn't have to think of Sungjoo until he was lying in bed waiting to sleep, but he finished an hour too early. He sighed and held his head in his hands, trying to think of something else to do. He couldn't go to a dance room at this time, they were closed. He showered and got ready for bed and even tried to get some extra sleep, but his mind wouldn't let him until he got some closure.

He started to count sheep but the fact that he had to live with this feeling for who knows how long kept him awake. Sometime in November, the latest he could leave... the latest... latest.

Yibo sprung up from his bed, getting a slight head rush, but nothing too bad. He was able to make it down the stairs without falling. He found his mother in the living room, she was on her computer again. The back of Yibo's mind was complaining about how she's always telling him to get off the computer while she's here on it all day. He quickly shook his head of the unneeded thoughts and cleared his throat to get his mother's attention.

"Yes, Yibo?" She did the creepy thing where her fingers fly over the keyboard while she looked at him and he tried not to shy out of his question.

"When's... the earliest I could leave for the dance academy?" He shifted his feet. The sound of typing filled the room and Yibo was about to take back the request but his mother beat him to it.

"Friday." She said before adding, "Why? I thought you would want to leave at latest..." He saw the worry in his mother's eyes and he tried not to tell her the real reason.

"I'm just so excited to be going" He grinned sheepishly, trying to act as real as possible, pulling the small feelings out so it's believable.

"Do you want me to book your flight then?" She asked he heard the undertone of 'Say no' but he nodded anyway. His mother typed a few more things before nodding towards him. "Okay, it's done, you'll leave next week, we'll start packing your stuff on Wednesday okay? Good night Yibo." She sighed and smiled at the same time. Yibo wondered if it was because she didn't believe him, or because she didn't want her baby boy to be leaving so soon.

He walked up to his mother and kissed her forehead in good night before heading back up to his room.

'I'm sorry, Mom, but I can't handle it anymore. I don't even think I'll be able to handle a week of torture.'


	5. It's Time To Go

"Where have you been?" Sungjoo busted through Yibo's door. The younger looked up from his homework, furrowing his brows at the other.

"What?" He asked, pulling his earbuds out. Sungjoo still had his backpack on and he was panting.

"Where." Sungjoo took a step forward, "Have." Another step, the door swung close behind him, "You." He was looming over Yibo now, but Yibo was still unfazed, not understanding why Sungjoo was acting like that, "Been?" He finished. Yibo stared into his eyes for a while longer, still trying to process everything.

Right before Sungjoo opened his mouth to scream the question, Yibo's thoughts clicked and a little noise came from the back of his throat. "I..." Sungjoo glared at him, analyzing his every move, daring him to lie, "I've had a lot of homework lately, I couldn't afford to wait for you." He tried his best not to break eye contact.

"You've had so much homework that you didn't even have time to wait just a little bit?" Sungjoo asked he didn't seem mad anymore, good. These were the times Yibo appreciated the fact Sungjoo was so oblivious.

"Sungjoo, I've waited 30 minutes. You're 'little bit' is not the same as mine." He looked back down at his homework and tried to make sense of the words on paper.

"You don't hang out with us at lunch either," Sungjoo whined.

"I work in the library because I need a quiet place to work," Yibo said idly, writing something down as if it was the right answer, he'll erase it later. "It's not as if I'm leaving you alone, though," Yibo's eyes focused on the point of his pencil, "Yixuan is there right?" He heard the 'us' earlier.

"Well yeah... but" Yibo glanced up, "Yixuan thinks that you're not sitting with us anymore because you don't like him." Yibo's eyes dragged back down to the paper, Sungjoo was only concerned because of Yixuan.

"I don't hate Yixuan, you know how I am around new people." Yibo began writing again, trying to clear his mind of negative thoughts while Sungjoo was there, "Plus, I have a lot of homework to do, I told you already, why do you think I haven't been on League either?" He kept his voice monotone so Sungjoo wouldn't be able to assume anything.

"Can you hang out with us tomorrow?" Yibo looked up again to meet Sungjoo's eyes. He sighed and nodded.

"I'm not promising any conversation, though like I said, I have a lot of homework." He shooed Sungjoo off. He stood in his spot before leaving Yibo alone. Yibo made sure Sungjoo was out the door before he started counting with his fingers and reciting the days of the week backward.

It took Sungjoo a week, with help from Yixuan, to confront Yibo about not being there after school or at lunch. A week. Yibo blamed it off of the fact he never spoke, but Sungjoo would always talk to him. He felt a tight knot in his chest again. He kept thinking about the fact Yixuan had said something about him, and that's what made Sungjoo burst through his door.

If Yixuan hadn't told Sungjoo about his concern, would Sungjoo even notice before Yibo left for the dance academy? He gripped his blond locks and rested his forehead against his homework. It would be a little tougher the next two days.

He had promised Sungjoo he would sit with them. Yibo thought of just walking home with Sungjoo again but he remembered he had to pack to school and finish up some documents. Sitting at lunch wouldn't be too much of a problem, it was only 45 minutes long.

-

"I don't want you to be sitting here just because Sungjoo told you to. If you don't like me you can go back to the library and I'll tell Sungjoo that you weren't able to focus with all the noise around here." Yixuan assured with a worried expression. Yibo pulled his binder and pencil pouch and shot a small smile towards the other.

"I don't hate you Yixuan," Yibo pulled out his favorite mechanical pencil, "I've just been really busy with homework, which is why I'm doing it now." Yibo looked at the tip of the pencil while pushing the end, trying to get just the right amount of lead out.

"Sorry, just sometimes, you look a little..."

"Bitchy?" Yibo finished for him, Yixuan tried to deny it, saying that bitchy was such a harsh word. Yibo laughed and flipped open his binder to his English section before pointing his pencil to Yixuan. "It's fine, I'm not offended. Don't worry about it." He stared at Yixuan until he nodded.

\- Few minutes later -

"Why are you guys never talking when I come?" Sungjoo whined Yibo rolled his eyes, not even bothering to look up from his paper.

"Because you always take half the lunch time to get food." Yibo countered, looking between one paper and the other, copying down some of the text.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered you're awkward" Sungjoo shot back. Yibo fake laughed and concentrated on his homework.

"You guys are so mean to each other" Yixuan sighed and shook his head. Yibo waited for Sungjoo to answer.

"It's normal, we're always like this." Sungjoo let his hand connect with Yibo's back a few times in a patting gesture, Yibo tried to control the pencil movements, "Isn't that right Yibo?"

He nodded, still copying the sheet.

"C'mon Yibo, you can do your homework later, talk to us!" Sungjoo grabbed the younger's shoulder and shook him violently. When the earthquake stopped Yibo sighed and looked at Sungjoo.

"One, you know I don't like to talk much. Two, I really need to get this homework done because I'm busy after school so please, can I just work?" Yibo whined back. When the bell rang Yibo whined again and packed up all his stuff.

"I can't walk home with you today or Friday. I have to get a lot of stuff done after school since someone decided to distract me." He watched the pout make it's way to Sungjoo's face and forced himself not to smile. "You can hang out with me all you want after school tomorrow." Sungjoo leaped into the air and immediately turned to Yixuan.

"He can come with us right?" Sungjoo begged Yibo smiled at how excited Sungjoo seemed to be about hanging out with him. He looked a Yixuan and mouthed a small 'You don't have to' but Yixuan ignored it and nodded to Sungjoo.

"Yes! Yibo, you're coming with us after school tomorrow to the mall, okay? No backing out of this." Sungjoo threatened him with a finger. Yibo held his hands up in mock surrender before waving goodbye and heading off to math.

-

It became a usual thing, to walk home alone, and Yibo felt the small tightening in his chest again. He wondered what would have happened if Sungjoo hadn't come up to him the day he moved in. What would his life had been like if he was living beside Sungjoo this whole time but he never spoke to him. He knew that he most likely would have thought the other was attractive still, just never knowing his personality, much like a person you saw on a magazine cover. Would he still be feeling like this if he had never spoken to Sungjoo?

'You would have met him eventually,' he told himself, remembering that his mother and Sungjoo's were great friends. He shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to think of something else. He passed the dance studio already, it was too late to turn back to relieve some stress

Opening the door to his house, he greeted his mother, who already had boxes out for him to put his stuff. He knew she didn't want him to leave so early, but the flight was already booked and he wouldn't be able to handle another week after this. He hugged her tightly, grabbing the boxes when he let go. He smiled at her silently and she finally decided to ask him why he wanted to leave so early.

"I already told you, Mom, I'm just so excited to go" he smiled but knew she wasn't buying it.

"Yibo," she gave him a look and he sighed.

"Sungjoo..." He meant to continue but his voice wouldn't let him. He turned his back to walk up the stairs before he would be able to feel any worse.

"Yibo..." she called, making him stop halfway, he turned around to look at her with a blank expression. "At least, tell him you're leaving." She advised he nodded after a while, turning back around to pack some of his stuff.

-

"You wanted me... to hang out with you... while you guys were on a date..." He said as he got ready. Sungjoo brought his clothes over and took a shower in Yibo's bathroom, not wanting his mother to question his fancy getup.

"It's not exactly a date" Sungjoo drawled out, Yibo fixed his hair a little more before turning to face the other with a face exclaiming he didn't believe him. "We were just going to hang out," Sungjoo said, trying to put on his shoes.

"So... a date..." Yibo repeated again, despite the ache in his chest, it was still fun to tease Sungjoo. He quickly caught the flying shoe before it connected to his face. "That could have killed me you know" He stated before tossing it back to the owner. Sungjoo grumbled something along the lines of 'I wish it did' and managed to get the shoe on.

"I'm wounded." He held his hand to his chest before opening the door to go downstairs. "Mom, we're going to the mall now," He called out, listening for a reply.

"Okay!" He heard her yell from her room. "Be back before it gets dark! You still have school tomorrow!" She added after a while. Yibo immediately thought about the fact he didn't even need to go to school tomorrow, he was leaving early and all his teachers were notified about him leaving. He shrugged and opened the front door to wait for Sungjoo.

It was a nice day out, there were a few clouds in the sky and a slight breeze but nothing too cold, and the sky was a vibrant blue.

What a perfect day to third wheel on a date.

He checked his phone percentage just in case he needed it, as well as checking the time. When Sungjoo came through his door it was 3:20 and they had 40 minutes to get to the mall.

Sungjoo drove, Yibo hasn't gone anywhere with him by car in a while, of course, the only places he's been for the past months were within walking distance, so there was no real need for a car.

"I JUST WANT TO SCREAM~" Sungjoo sang from the top of his lungs while the music blasted, and for fun, Yibo turned the volume all the way down as Sungjoo sang the high note, every wrong tune noticeable to anyone listening. When Sungjoo realized what was happening Yibo started laughing uncontrollably. "HEY!" Sungjoo said, taking his hand off the wheel to slap Yibo's shoulder.

Yibo continued to laugh as Sungjoo got more frustrated. "I could kick you out of this car you know!" He threatened, Yibo finally managed to calm down enough to counter with a small, please.

"How rude! Do you not want to hang out with your best friend anymore?" He used the hand that slapped Yibo to cover his chest and heart area.

"Not when he's being annoyingly gushy with his crush no," Yibo stated immediately calming down and looking out the window, he didn't mean to bring up Yixuan.

"Once you get a crush, you'll understand," Sungjoo said in an as-a-matter-of-fact tone.

"Yeah okay." Yibo rolled his eyes again before turning the volume back up, hoping it would cut through the awkward silence that was sure to follow. Sungjoo just sang along with every song as if the whole conversation never happened.

"You're ruining it" Yibo whined as they pulled into the parking garage. Sungjoo, despite the static of the radio, still sang along to 'DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love' perfectly. When they parked, Yibo checked the time again. If Yixuan was the type to be there early so he wouldn't keep his company waiting, then he would most likely be there already. If he was punctual, he would get there in a matter of 20 minutes.

"You love my singing," Sungjoo said, shoving Yibo with his elbow slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say" Yibo shrugged, "Where do we go?" He asked he hadn't been to the mall in a while, he looked around at the shops and remembered why he didn't necessarily like the mall in the first place, there were too many people and everything was overpriced despite the 'SALE' signs.

"Yixuan wanted to meet up at..." Sungjoo unlocked his phone and checked his earlier messages, "the frozen yogurt place?" He read it again and confirmed it by repeating. "Yeah, the frozen yogurt place." Yibo nodded and waited for Sungjoo to take the lead.

The two made their way towards the escalators and Yibo tried to hold in his laugh when they circled around a few times and Sungjoo still didn't know where to go.

"Sungjoo, we passed it 3 times. It's over there" He said, pointing behind them. Sungjoo laughed nervously and shook his head.

"I knew that it's just..." He searched for an excuse, "I didn't see Yixuan in there yet so I was trying to kill time but since you're SO impatient," He grabbed Yibo's arm and began dragging him back towards the area Yibo pointed.

"Sungjoo we passed it again." Yibo said, pointing to the opening with the huge sign that read 'FROZEN YOGURT' Sungjoo stopped and slouched, letting go of Yibo's arm and dragging himself to the small store.

Yibo checked his phone for the time, they've been walking in circles for 10 minutes. When he looked up he found Yixuan standing there with a worried expression on his face. Sungjoo began to walk faster, taking Yibo with him.

"Why do you look so worried?" Sungjoo asked immediately, still holding onto Yibo's wrist.

"...Nothing, I was just thought I was late and you guys had gone off without me." Yixuan waved his hand and Yibo tore his wrist away from Sungjoo's grip.

"You're early 10 minutes, don't worry about it. Did you get here just now?" Yixuan nodded and Sungjoo seemed to relax. Yibo stayed quiet as the two began to talk about the class they shared together, he watched from behind them as they walked towards Sungjoo's favorite store.

Yibo looked around, the two went off somewhere but he didn't really care. He picked up a shirt and looked at the price when his wallet whimpered he sighed and set it back on the rack. He looked around, not expecting to find anyone he knew. Sungjoo was most likely in the part of the store that had pants on display, Yibo was never a pant person.

"Hey." A slightly familiar voice came towards Yibo's ears and he looked around a little shocked at who he found.

"Oh, Seungyoun right?" Yibo asked, pointing to the other. Yibo took his time to notice that the other was around the same height as him. He saw a number of clothes in the other's hands and he wondered how much money he had. "You're going to buy all of that?"

Seungyoun looked down at the numerous clothes and laughed nervously. "Sort of, my mom gave me money. She wanted me to buy as many clothes as I could before I go off to a dance academy. She doesn't want me to buy anything but food while I'm away."

"Dance academy?"

"Yeah, the plane that I'm on leaves tomorrow and I'm just doing some last minute shopping." Seungyoun shrugged, some of the clothes fell from his arm. He reached down to pick them up but more shirts ended up falling with them. Yibo laughed slightly and helped him pick everything up.

"I'm glad there's one person I know that's going," Yibo said more to himself but Seungyoun took the chance to continue the conversation.

"Thanks, and you're going too? That's great! I'm sure you'll be the best one out of everyone that's going." Yibo smiled but shook his head.

"I haven't seen you dance yet." He thought back to the time Seungyoun took his phone and moved to the beat, "Well, not really. I bet you're really good too if you're going to the academy."

"Nothing compared to you, you'll see when we attend the academy." He smiled and struggled a little more to keep the clothes on his arms. "I'm gonna go pay for these before they fall again. It was nice seeing you. We should meet up at the airport if you're leaving tomorrow." He tried to put the clothes on one arm as he reached for his phone. Yibo held some of the clothes and Seungyoun successfully brought out the cellular device.

When Yibo gave Seungyoun his number Seungyoun sent a message spelling his name. He got the clothes back from Yibo and walked towards the counter. Yibo checked his phone and sure enough, a message from an unknown number read 'Seungyoun'.

Yibo put his phone back in his pocket, he could talk to Seungyoun later, now he had to go find Sungjoo and Yixuan.

-

"Did you have fun yesterday?" Yixuan asked from across the table. Sungjoo was quick today and was able to sit down before Yibo could get a word out.

"Yeah, I got some new clothes," Yibo smiled to set Yixuan's heart at ease. He knew the other was worried he felt left out, and honestly, he did, but he couldn't let Yixuan know that. The other was too caring for his own good.

"That's good."

"What were you guys doing? You disappeared for a good 30 minutes."

"We were watching you talk to that one guy," Sungjoo said bluntly. Yibo had to think about what guy Sungjoo was talking about but he remembered Seungyoun.

'Shit, I didn't text him back yet.' Yibo looked at his phone, there was a few more messages from the unknown number but it didn't seem like the other was mad.

"Oh," Yibo nodded, he saw the message asking for his name and realized that he never did give out that piece of information.

"So who was he? Do you finally have a crush? Is my lifelong friend finally succumbing to the world that is normality and receiving the deadly poison of hormones?"

"Sungjoo what are you even talking about?" Yixuan asked before Yibo could. Yibo let out a little snort before shaking his head. 

"No, I saw him occasionally and we ended up talking because he dropped the clothes he wanted to buy."

"You guys were talking before the clothes fell, I remember that" Sungjoo tried to corner Yibo but the blond just rolled his eyes explaining that it was just some small talk.

"You're going to die alone," Sungjoo stated, eating his food in disappointment.

"Yeah, well." Yibo shrugged. Yixuan was being unnaturally quiet and Yibo looked at him in an attempt to get him talking.

"Nothing," Yixuan saw Sungjoo's raised brow, "Just, sometimes I like to observe too." Yixuan put his hands up in surrender. Yibo nodded in understanding but Sungjoo complained.

"Yibo your boring-ness is infecting Yixuan."

"Boring-ness isn't a word, nor is it a disease, I can't infect anyone."

"Sure it is! I almost caught it myself. It was last winter." Sungjoo laughed and stuck more food in his mouth. Yixuan chuckled and Yibo smiled slightly.

Yibo felt a vibration in his pocket and remembered Seungyoun again. He walked toward the bathroom so he could answer without Sungjoo accusing him.

Yixuan followed suit, he had something to say to Yibo.

"Are you leaving today too?" Yixuan asked quietly, Yibo looked around, making sure there was no one around.

"What?" Yibo played innocent but Yixuan smiled sympathetically.

"I can read lips Yibo when you were talking to Seungyoun, you said you were going to the dance academy too, are you leaving today?"

Yibo held his tongue for a long time. He wasn't expecting Yixuan to figure out. Slowly, he nodded his head.

"I think you should tell Sungjoo," Yixuan stated. Yibo shook his head, still silent. "Why don't you want to?"

"Because it's easier when Sungjoo isn't begging me to stay." He shrugged. Yixuan looked at him, hard, and Yibo sighed.

"Okay, I have a note." Yibo pulled the folded paper out of his pocket and gave it to Yixuan. "Give it to him after I leave okay?"

"Yibo-" The bell rang and Yixuan didn't get to finish his sentence.

"I'm serious Yixuan after I leave. I'm leaving now in fact. Be nice to Sungjoo for me okay?" Yibo smiled before walking out of the bathroom towards the table where Sungjoo was throwing away his lunch.

"What took you guys so long in there? Were you both having a conversation while taking a dump?" Sungjoo teased. Yibo laughed but looked at Yixuan pleadingly.

"Yeah," Yixuan went along and Yibo genuinely smiled.

"Oh Yibo, I'll be able to walk home with you today! Yixuan's coming with too!" Sungjoo grinned and Yibo smiled softly.

"I'm doing something after school remember?"

'I'm going on a plane.' He saw Sungjoo's face fall.

"I'm leaving right now." He picked up his bag and waved as he walked backward. "Maybe next time Sungjoo" Yibo smiled one last time before turning around and heading toward the office.

No hug.

No goodbye.

No nothing


	6. Notes

Sungjoo watched Yibo's back get farther and farther away. Yibo's face before he turned was being engraved behind his eyelids. Every time he blinked he would see the hurt in the other's face. He saw the hesitation, the fake smile, the forced wave. He saw everything there was to see in Yibo's face. He saw a face of goodbye. He wanted to call out to Yibo, to ask him where he's going and what he's doing after school. Sungjoo wanted to know.

He felt a tug on his arm and he turned to see Yixuan beckoning him to get to class. Sungjoo looked back one more time but Yibo was gone, it was too late. Just like any other time.

It was frustrating, not knowing why Yibo looked like that. He was sure Yibo was hurting, but he didn't know why. Why did he look so hesitant? Why did he have to force the smile onto his face? Why did he have to leave early?

-

Sungjoo gripped his knees as his choir teacher gave the voice test, where they had to match the pitch of their voice with the keys on the piano. The sound of the key's echoed in his head as if they were marking each time something bad happened.

Do. 'I was late one day. Yibo usually doesn't mind, but he was mad at the time, I remember.' Sungjoo thought about why he was late. 'I saw Yixuan and I wanted to become friends with him but he left right when the bell rang. I went looking for him and eventually gave up. That's why I was late.' He nodded to himself, wondering why Yibo was mad about that.

'Yibo usually lets it slide when I'm late, I was late 3 hours before and Yibo didn't seem that mad.' He remembered Yibo told him he just had a lot of homework to work on but something in his gut told him that wasn't true. He thought about it more and he remembered Yibo seemed fine up until he gave the reason.

'When I told him that I saw a cute guy he got mad.'

Re. 'We were walking home the next day. I was early, I was actually there waiting for Yibo. I... what did I do to make him mad? He was mad that day too, I remember.'   
He heard his name being called and he stood. The teacher was calling him to take the test. He stared into space for a while before walking towards the piano.

His mind was fogged as he took the test. He had practiced a lot before so he was able to finish without trying. If his teacher noticed she didn't say anything about it. Sungjoo walked back to the corner, why was Yibo mad that day? Was he teasing the other about having a crush? No, that was the same day he was late.

Mi. 'I was talking about Yixuan.' Sungjoo remembered. He remembered describing Yixuan's outfit and describing everything about him, he remembered how big the crush he had was when he first met Yixuan. He remembered Yibo walking straight into his house as he daydreamed. He wished he would have seen Yibo's face as he went to the door, maybe he would have figured this out earlier.

Fa. 'Yibo stopped coming to the lunch table.' He remembered the days passed and they were filled with him talking to Yixuan, being a little surprised whenever he got a response. Yixuan usually tried to keep the conversation going, Sungjoo was accustomed to Yibo staying silent.

So. 'Yibo missed lunch that one day too before he met Yixuan' he remembered. 'Yibo was gone the first day I asked Yixuan to sit with us, and Yibo was at school that day. We walked to school and back home together. Why wasn't he at lunch that day?' He tried to remember if he had asked the other but he wasn't able to recall the memory. 'I never asked him about it...' Sungjoo noticed, a dark feeling rested in his chest, the feeling of guilt.

'It was after the day he started to get a lot of homework, the first time he didn't play League in a while... He could have had a hard time finishing it. But he didn't seem sleepy that morning, it didn't look like he stayed up all night. He was completely fine and he's not the type to procrastinate, especially if he had a lot of homework. He's done homework in front of me too. He could have ditched because Yixuan was sitting there, but he always gets to the table before me and he couldn't have known Yixuan was going to sit with us that day, I didn't even know he was going to sit with us.'

Sungjoo thought more but he couldn't come up with anything. He got rid of the thought for now but he would have to come back to that later. What else could have made Yibo so upset?

La. 'He met Yixuan for the first time, it seemed okay. He wasn't glaring at him and he told me he didn't hate him. So this can't be because of Yixuan... But he didn't walk home with me that day. He could have had a lot of homework, he said he did, but he wouldn't want to miss school. If he missed school wouldn't he have to get all the work he missed? He would be behind.'

Sungjoo didn't understand, 'Why was Yibo leaving and why hasn't he walked home with me? It doesn't add up. Yibo could have left because he was sick, but he didn't look sick. He looked healthy.' The image of Yibo's sad eyes flashed through Sungjoo's head and he forced himself to get his thoughts on track.

He thought back to the last 2 days. It was when he started to feel something was off. Yibo didn't have time to wait for him anymore because he had a lot of homework, Sungjoo wasn't believing it but he didn't know what else he could think. Yibo was so closed off. It made Sungjoo regret not paying more attention the last week.

Ti. The car ride. 'Yibo brought up Yixuan, I remember. He was in a bad mood afterward too.' He remembered how fast the conversation went downhill. He remembered Yibo turning the music back on after mentioning Yixuan. 'He got mad after I told him about my crush. Was it because he doesn't like it when I tease him about it?'

'No... it can't be that. He's never been mad about it before. Was he lying about liking Yixuan? Does he actually hate him?' The bell rang and Sungjoo was forced to move. He thought about it all the way to his next period. He would get to see Yixuan, 'They were talking at lunch, in the bathroom, but Yibo wasn't mad, he looked...' The image of Yibo was still there, popping up, taunting Sungjoo. He was going to ask Yixuan what they were talking about in the bathroom. He was too confused about it all and he needed to know.

When he walked into the room he went to his desk quietly, thoughts of Yibo bugging him. He refused to acknowledge them any more than he already had. He waited till Yixuan came into the room, distracting himself for the time being by looking around. He could already tell they wouldn't get anything done this period.

There was a substitute teacher filling in along students in the class whom always tried to confuse them as much as possible. He looked like the type to read the outline wrong as well. Sighing, Sungjoo wondered what his classmates would make up today.

Last time, they were talking about how the teacher didn't know how to teach so they were all confused. That led to the sub trying to teach everyone but it didn't work out well. Maybe today they wouldn't know the assignments were due. It was a popular excuse. As the bell rang he watched Yixuan make it in the nick of time.

"You're usually early, what kept you up?" Sungjoo asked, trying to keep the conversation calm. He didn't want to start off serious.

"My teacher," Yixuan said, trying to catch his breath. Sungjoo nodded and turned to the front of the classroom. The substitute was giving a speech about how they better be in their assigned seats and how they already know what they were supposed to be doing. He spoke about what the outline said and how it was a little hard to understand but eventually he let them go. Everyone immediately turned to one another to continue their previous conversations.

"So..." Sungjoo started off. Yixuan looked at him, expecting him to continue but he probably already knew what Sungjoo wanted to say.

"What did we talk about during lunch?" Yixuan asked. Sungjoo's eyes went wide for a moment before he relaxed and nodded. Yixuan seemed to smile and he looked through his bag for something. Sungjoo tried moving so he could see what Yixuan was trying to pull out but Yixuan got the note before Sungjoo's butt had to get off the chair.

"What's that?" Sungjoo asked, pointing to the folded paper. Yixuan laughed, Sungjoo heard sympathy in it and began to feel a little worried about what the letter was. Yixuan handed it out to him and he took it slowly, staring at the folding. There wasn't any writing on the outside but there were small crumples in the corners as if it's been in a pocket.

Sungjoo looked at the paper, then back to Yixuan about three times before asking, "Do I open it?"

There was Yixuan's sympathy again, it was in his smile now. Sungjoo still didn't understand. "No," Yixuan started, "If I were you, I wouldn't read it now." He looked up and around the classroom. "I don't think you're going to like what's in it."

"Did you read it? Who is it from?" Sungjoo turned the note over, inspecting it as if he knew he missed looking at one part of the note.

"I didn't read it. Yibo told me to give it to you. When I followed him to the bathroom he was texting someone. I...." Sungjoo was staring at Yixuan with such intensity that Yixuan felt the urge to look down. "I started talking to him. He told me to give that to you after he left."

"After he left? Like, after he left the school? He left after lunch you could have given it to me then." There was a slight irritation in Sungjoo's voice but he wasn't mad at Yixuan, he was mad at himself for not understanding why Yibo needed to give him a note. Yibo had never given him a note before. If he had a problem he would tell Sungjoo directly.

"Sungjoo, Yibo's been hiding something from us-- hiding something from you." Yixuan corrected himself. Sungjoo was looking down now. At the note. His mind wasn't filtering exactly what Yixuan was saying. His words were mixing in with the conversations their classmates were having.

"What" Sungjoo was completely lost. He saw Yixuan sigh as if he was fighting himself over what he was about to say.

"He- Yibo-" Yixuan sighed again, he closed his eyes. "Sungjoo do you like Yibo?" Yixuan asked. Sungjoo was taken aback by the question. He wasn't expecting Yixuan to ask that but he found himself saying yes.

"Yes, I do like Yibo. I like him a lot actually." Yixuan smiled at Sungjoo's words, but Sungjoo still saw something, something that looked like disappointment.

"Why didn't you tell him Sungjoo?"

That was a hard question, there's never been a time that he felt the need to tell Yibo that he liked him. It's like his feelings were there the whole time and he just saw it now. It was hard to explain, he could barely explain it to himself. He thought about it, about how he always liked Yibo's silence. It was comforting. He noticed that he was also trying to get Yibo to talk all the time because he really liked hearing the younger's deep voice. Just, he noticed that he likes Yibo.

"I... never really thought about it till now" He answered truthfully. "It's like," He looked up at Yixuan for a moment to find him staring, he looked down at the note and continued, "It's like, how we breathe." He laughed lightly at the corny line, "it's comforting and you're always doing it. It's... always there." He stopped and thought about it some more. 

"When it comes to Yibo, it's like I'm just breathing. It's natural and everything is always fine. We don't need to tell ourselves to breathe, right?" He asked looking up, he saw Yixuan nod and he continued, "We do it without even thinking... So I think... my relationship with Yibo... it's like that. I like him, but I didn't feel the need to say it or think about it. I never did until you asked me." He looked down at the note again, wondering about what was written on it. Yixuan was right, if he reads it, he might not like what it says.

"When you asked me that question just now, it felt like I was holding my breath and I had to tell myself to breathe. I just realized that I like Yibo. It feels as if I just told myself I like him. It wasn't commanding, though. It's like- I don't know, this is confusing but-" He paused carefully choosing his words "I do, I like Yibo." Yixuan nodded and Sungjoo took a deep breath. He didn't know why Yixuan was asking him this. It made him even more confused. He didn't know exactly how to explain it, he used a bad analogy but he couldn't come up with a better one right now.

"What's Yibo hiding?" Sungjoo piped up after a while. They had been listening to the classroom, the rumble of it all, for the past minute.

"He's leaving," Yixuan said in all seriousness.

"Yeah, I know that he told us a while ago." Sungjoo joked the way Yixuan said those two words left a bad feeling in his chest.

"You know that's not what I meant" Yixuan's soft smile was back, Sungjoo felt his chest tighten. "He left to a dance academy." He finished. Sungjoo nodded, running his two lips between his teeth and taking a deep breath through his nose.

"Why didn't he tell me?" Sungjoo looked through his eyelashes to Yixuan.

There was a familiar sound of rustling papers and backpack zippers, signaling the end of class. When the bell rang, it sounded foreign, it was partially blocked out with the sound of the last piano key and the three words Yixuan let out.

Do. "I don't know"

-

Sungjoo walked home alone. Yixuan offered to walk with him, but he declined. He wondered if Yibo felt like this, lost. He looked down at the cracks in the sidewalk. There was really nothing to do. He was walking slower than usual and he was taking a long way.

He remembered when he first started using the path. He used to take it every day because it lead to the middle school and he got to walk home with Yibo that way, but he hadn't walked it ever since Yibo's promotion.

Walks home with Yibo were usually quiet, but nothing like the one Sungjoo was experiencing now. This silence was dead as if it was reminding Sungjoo that the younger wasn't there with him. He slowed his walk and pulled out the note. He was a while from reaching the col de sac, he was just now seeing the middle school. He unfolded it once, checking to see if there was anything written there.

After rechecking 3 more times, he opened it the next time. He was met with Yibo's handwriting. It had always been neater than anyone expected. He looked up to make sure there weren't too many people around before reading.

'If you're reading this, that means I actually gave it to you. If I'm not there with you, then that means I was able to leave. I'm going off to a dance academy and won't be coming back for 3 years. I'll miss you of course, but I couldn't hold back on this opportunity.

I knew that if I told you earlier you would tell me to stay and honestly I would have. That's exactly why I didn't tell you till now. I don't know how you got the letter, most likely from my mother, I wanted to make sure that you would read it after I was on the plane so you won't be able to stop me.

If I stayed, I would have been in a lot of pain. You always tease me about the fact I don't have a crush and you're always talking about how amazing I am for beating hormones. I wasn't upset about the teasing, but I'm completely normal Sungjoo. I do have a crush, he's reading this letter right now. I've liked you since fourth grade. I'm not even sure I can call it a like anymore.

You never noticed when I was gone unless Yixuan brought it up. You came to my house because of Yixuan's concern about whether I hate him or not. I was missing at lunch one day but Yixuan wouldn't have known so he didn't comment on it until now you still haven't asked me. I sound like I'm whining, I probably am, but it just hurts so much to be ignored by someone you love.

No, I didn't go tell my mom about all of this and force her to get me into the dance academy so I wouldn't have to see you anymore. My mom happened to get me the spot when all of this was happening and I agreed. I like to think I would still have agreed if you didn't like Yixuan. I like to think that I accepted solely because I love dancing.

I know you and Yixuan will be happy together. He's all the things I'm not and you really seem to like him. He can hold a conversation and tell you about himself, he offers everything to you and doesn't complain. He's all smiles and gentleness. I'm none of those things, if you like Yixuan then I'm definitely not your type. Sorry, I sound really bitter right now.

Have fun in college Sungjoo, I wasn't able to tell you this in person but this is goodbye.'

Sungjoo looked up from the note and found himself standing in front of his house. He laughed as if everything was all some sick joke. Yibo was still home. He had to be. He didn't see any boxes when he was getting ready yesterday. Yibo had to be here still.

He turned and walked down the sidewalk towards Yibo's front step. When the door opened it was Yibo's mom like normal, it helped put Sungjoo at ease for a little bit.

"Oh," he heard Mrs.Wang sniff and physically flinched. She had been crying. "Hello Sungjoo, what brings you here? I thought Yibo told you..." She trailed off and Sungjoo heard her shaky breath.

"He really left?" Sungjoo's voice broke. He looked through the crack in the door and saw her nod. He smiled softly and nodded back. "Oh, I thought he went home early to pack more... Okay, I'm sorry." He nodded again and backed away from the door.

The realization of everything hurt his head. All the thinking he did today hurt his head. Thinking of what Yibo wrote hurt his head.

He felt hot and the slight stinging in the back of his eyes made them water. He felt his lower eyelid keep his tears in, but blinked, disturbing the surface tension and causing it to roll down his cheek.

Knowing that Yibo's gone made his heart hurt.


	7. God Damn It Sungjoo

There were bad days.

Bad days are when Sungjoo goes to the bakery Yixuan works at, sits in the cozy corner table, and stays there the whole day drinking whatever Yixuan recommends. Bad days come most often, Sungjoo feels bad for Yixuan since the other has to deal with him, but he didn't want to be alone.

It was a small coffee shop, there weren't many workers and the wall didn't have anything fancy but the different shades of brown. Sungjoo thought it was cute and he always felt better when he was inside. It wasn't silent, there was the constant sound of brewing coffee and small talk to keep him company.

As most days passed since Yibo left, Sungjoo would remember something the younger did, and all the things the younger never complained about but should have. Sure he handled them better as days went on, he started going out of the house again and talking to people. Sadness was still present, but now he was able to mask it.

He remembered all the days Yibo wouldn't eat breakfast because he slept in. He remembered he slept in because he stayed up late playing league. He stayed up playing because Sungjoo asked him too.

"The boy could've been sleep deprived because of me" Sungjoo leaned forward over the edge of the table, grumbling to himself.

Sungjoo remembered when he asked Yibo to enter the talent show with him. He never complained but Sungjoo was starting to realize all the discomfort Yibo had. He wouldn't talk at all and followed everything Sungjoo said, he never argued and never teased Sungjoo when he messed up. It was so un-Yibo like at the time. Luckily enough, they weren't able to perform that day, Sungjoo got sick and his mother wouldn't let him go out. He wondered what Yibo would have done if Sungjoo wasn't sick.

"He didn't say no, though, he didn't want to do it, though, he never complained, though, he was okay with it, though, but he wasn't though" He grumbled more and felt a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up from the pretzel of his arms to see Yixuan's sympathetic look, Yixuan always had that face when he looks at Sungjoo. Sungjoo was staring to think that was his actual face.

"You said too many 'though's"

Sungjoo laughed halfheartedly and straightened his back against the chair, managing to crack his spine in a few places.

There have been good days, but they were rare.

These were days when Yixuan was free and able to cheer Sungjoo up. He was such a great friend Sungjoo knew that he owed a lot.

He owed him back for the time they went to the amusement park, from all the times they went to the mall when Yixuan brought food to his house because he knew Sungjoo was just sulking in his room. There was a lot more and Yixuan always said it was fine. Sungjoo had been believing it up until now.

There have been normal days too.

Days where Sungjoo tolerates Yibo not being there. Where he's aware Yibo is gone but no bad memories come. On those days, it's usually when Yixuan has work and he doesn't have money to pay for anything. He feels awkward to just sit there even though Yixuan said it would be fine. When he has a normal day he's usually too busy to think about anything.

He started college not that long ago, but for him, it feels like he's been there his whole life. On normal days, he catches up in all his assignments while being late because he slept in, on those days he skips meals and he's only able to think about food during his free time. Sungjoo likes normal days, he would choose to have a normal day over the one he was having so far.

He looked across the table, Yixuan was sitting there now. He was still in his working apron.

"You're on your break?" Sungjoo tilted his head. It was always better talking to Yixuan, but he knew he wasn't able to keep him up the whole time. "You probably want to talk to..." Sungjoo looked behind him towards the counter and spotted the familiar face. He smiled when he saw the young man, he thought that the other was adorable, the way he always waited for Yixuan.

Sungjoo had come most days of the week ever since Yixuan got his job, and every time around Yixuan's break, the boy would be there. He hadn't bothered to learn the other's name but he seemed nice. He was always smiling and when Sungjoo watched the two interact they seemed like they could talk for hours. They probably would if Sungjoo weren't there. Yixuan would always look over and excuse himself.

"No, it's fine. I talk to him every day." As if on cue the man turned around and waved towards the two. Yixuan turned slightly pink and waved back. Sungjoo smiled a bit more at the cute exchange and stood up.

"You talk to me every day too Yixuan, I'm fine." Yixuan gave him a look of disbelief and Sungjoo let out a laugh. "Really, I am. Go talk to him, and make sure to introduce us sometime. I would like to know his name." He set some money on the table, that's a good repayment for now. Sungjoo would make up for the rest later.

It's been a year and a half, close to summer time. Sungjoo walked out of the store into the hot outside air. He's always liked being warm over being cold. It was comforting. He let himself bask in the sun with his eyes closed for a while longer before walking down the street.

The good thing about the cafe was that it was built in the plaza between the high school and his house, which meant was able to walk every day. Walking cleared his mind sometimes, he was able to observe everything around him and think of cute dates he would bring Yibo on if he was still there.

He sighed, 2 more years, 2 more years and Yibo will be back. He slowed his walk, something he's been doing a lot lately, he slowed to a stop and stared at a trail before changing his route and following it.

It was narrow, and covered with a bunch of squirrel droppings, but it was quiet and had the same feeling of silence Yibo gave off. Sungjoo occasionally walked through it, he liked to walk through it on good days. It kept him happy.

At the end of the trail, there was a small park. It was mostly field, but there were swings and a slide, for Sungjoo, that counts as a park. The swings were way too small for him and if he sat on the slide his feet would touch the floor. The paint was chipping and metal was corroding but Sungjoo still liked it there.

It was one of the places he was surely going to bring Yibo when he got back. Yibo would love it, no people, just them two. Sungjoo smiled at the thought as he took a lap around the small play set, observing all the chips and rust. He wondered if there were other people that came here beside him.

"Yibo would like it here..." Sungjoo let his back rest on the grass, he should start coming here instead of the cafe, that way he would be relaxed and not be bothering Yixuan.

He folded his arms behind his head and heard some rustling in the trees. Sungjoo tilted his head back and squinted his eyes to see if someone was coming. He ended up rolling over and sitting up in shock when he saw two guys, one looked a lot like Yibo. He rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating but Yibo was still there. It was only a year... right?

The guy next to him saw Sungjoo first, he didn't seem to mind but Sungjoo knew he said something because the Yibo-look-alike snapped his head up and made eye contact with Sungjoo.

The elder of the two scrambled to stand up, dusting himself off and shyly looking up at the look-alike again. He rubbed the back of his head.

"Yibo?" He asked. The other stopped and looked at his friend. The look-alike nodded and smiled softly.

"Hi, Sungjoo." His friend seemed to think of something before whispering in Yibo's ear and leaving. Waving to both of them. Yibo looked at the floor and swayed a little.

"Wh-what are you doing back so early? And..." He gestured to his hair and Yibo touched his fringe gently.

"I came back to see my mom... I wasn't expecting to see you... I thought you would be in a dorm." He paused before answering the second question, "I thought it would be a good change" Yibo let his hand drop to his side again as he waited for Sungjoo to say something.

"No... I'm still living with my mom heh... You just got back today right? You must be jet lagged." He peeked up at the younger slightly, "It looks good on you"

"Thanks..." Yibo murmured. Sungjoo sat down again and patted the patch of grass next to him.

"Come sit, we can catch up." Yibo walked over slowly but Sungjoo wasn't complaining.

Sungjoo didn't hesitate when he blurted, "I got your note." he rested his arms on his knees and looked at the trees if he looked at Yibo he might do something the other doesn't want.

"Oh..."

"I was thinking about it today actually... about what you said inside the note." He looked at Yibo to find him staring back with fear in his eyes. Sungjoo was taken aback but continued, afraid to break eye contact. "Yibo... do you still like me?"

Yibo blinked, he moved back a little and Sungjoo sighed, dropping his head with a bitter smile and taking it as a no.

"I'm sorry, for putting you through all that trouble... I guess this is the way the world is repaying me." He looked up at the sky again, eyes a little moister than usual, bitter smile still on his face. Yibo stared at him for a while, wondering about what the elder just said. Sungjoo caught on and laughed, wiping baby teardrops away. "Just... How you waited so long... You've liked me for so long and now that I like you, you've finally moved on."

Sungjoo laughed to himself, no, he laughed at himself. He deserved this, he shouldn't be crying. 'Yibo deserves someone that would know everything about him, not someone like me, who doesn't even understand a small gesture.'

He saw Yibo's eyes widen in his peripherals and stood up before dusting the dirt off his butt. "Sorry again, I'll leave now." He didn't bother turning around, he missed Yibo getting up in a rush as he walked towards the trail.

He felt a hand around his wrist and a tug on his arm then suddenly his mouth was covered by another. This time, Sungjoo's eyes widened and he was the one to step back. Yibo was still holding onto his wrist tightly.

"God damn it Sungjoo," Yibo said, moving to rest his forehead on the other's shoulder. Sungjoo felt the grip on his wrist loosen then tighten repeatedly before the hand dropped to the side.

"Wh-what?" He heard Yibo laugh and watched his shoulder shake slightly and a sudden warm feeling spread across his chest.

"Do you really think that someone like me would stop loving the only person in his life besides his mom-- Do you really think that I would be over you in a year?" His tone carried a teasingly sad mood and Sungjoo was confused again.

"You... were with--" Yibo moved his head away from Sungjoo's shoulder to look him in the eye.

"A friend Sungjoo, a friend. When he whispered in my ear earlier he was telling me he was going to see his boyfriend. Sungjoo I-- I still love you, a lot" Yibo looked away and shoved his hands in his pockets. Sungjoo watched the tips of his ears turn pink from under the brown hair.

Without thinking, Sungjoo cupped Yibo's cheek with his hand so he could turn the younger's face to look at him. When he got the other's attention he dropped his hand to Yibo's neck and wrapped his arm around Yibo's lower back. He brought him in and pressed their lips together gently. He felt Yibo's hands come out from inside his pockets and suddenly there was a pair of arms between the two, pushing Sungjoo away. Sungjoo opened his eyes to find tears in Yibo's.

"What did I do now?" Sungjoo asked, worried. Yibo tried to push him farther but his arms refused to listen to his brain and he ended up burying his face in the crook of Sungjoo's neck while gripping the back of his shirt. Sungjoo kept his left arm behind Yibo as the other moved up to stroke Yibo's hair. It was soft and made Sungjoo smile.

"You're an idiot." Yibo let out shakily, gripping the back of Sungjoo's shirt tighter. The elder combed his fingers through the Yibo's hair but stopped when he heard Yibo say, "If you're just saying this because you feel bad I swear--" Sungjoo quickly pushed the other far enough to lean back in and peck him on the lips, effectively cutting him off. When they separated again the tears spilled from Yibo's eyes and Sungjoo wiped them away gently.

He had never seen Yibo cry before, not like this, not in fear. He felt guilt well up in his chest and rested his forehead against Yibo's, staring into the other's eyes.

"Yibo, if I'm lying then you could kill me right now." He felt the other try to move away so he locked his arms and prevented any movement. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to realize it earlier. I love you. I really do." He caressed the younger's hair and neck again, gently massaging the area and watching him turn a pretty shade of pink.

"Idiot," Yibo said again before hiding himself in Sungjoo once more, smiling to himself when Sungjoo laughed.

-

"WENHAAAAN~!" Seungyoun burst through the glass doors of the dance studio, immediately walking over to the counter to peer over it and stare at his currently sleeping boyfriend.

"Mfm lemme sleep, no one comes in any way" Wenhan shooed away an imaginary fly causing Seungyoun to pout.

"Wenhan get up, is this any way to greet your boyfriend that's been gone for a year and a half?!"

Wenhan finally opened his eyes to peer at the other. His eyes widened for a moment before he stood up, grabbing Seungyoun's collar, and bringing him down into a kiss over the counter.

Seungyoun pushed him away, wearing a grin waiting for Wenhan expectantly.

"Why are you back so early?? I thought-- you said-- Seungyoun" Wenhan smiled, he looked like he just ran a mile, he moved around the counter to hug the other, squeezing him tightly as if to make sure he was real. "I missed you"

"Ew don't go all gooey on me" Seungyoun pushed him away teasingly but it wasn't even hard enough to open a door. "Something happened at the academy, I don't know exactly what, I think the person in charge of it got sick or something business-like, but we were all sent home with refunds."

"So you're staying?" Wenhan smiled, still hugging the younger close.

"Gah!" Seungyoun pushed him again, "I told you no gooey stuff!" He saw Wenhan pout, he knew it was fake but he didn't stop himself from lightly kissing the other. "But yeah, I'm staying."

-

"I missed you," Sungjoo said into Yibo's hair. They were still at the deserted park, facing away from the trail. Yibo was sitting between Sungjoo's legs and leaned back against the other as Sungjoo buried his face in his hair.

"You told me that already" He smiled when he said it, knowing that this was very unlike him, but he couldn't bring himself to care. He felt Sungjoo tighten his hold around his chest and say something else. "What?" Yibo looked up at Sungjoo so the sound wouldn't be muffled again,

"I said," Sungjoo leaned down to kiss Yibo's lips, he's been doing this for the past 5 minutes, "It's because I need to make up for everything I put you through before you leave again."

Yibo rolled his eyes and suddenly reached up to play with the hair on the back of Sungjoo's head. He stroked the hair there softly, noticing that it didn't change before bringing Sungjoo's head down so they could kiss again. It was sweet and simple nothing too flustering, but Yibo still felt his ears go hot.

"I'm not leaving." He whispered against Sungjoo's lips, smiling when the other pulled away with a confused face. This time, Sungjoo didn't kiss him, he just wrapped his arms around Yibo again and hugged him tightly.

"Yibo," Sungjoo said, moving his head lower so it would rest in the crook of Yibo's neck

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you complain? I've been thinking about that ever since you left... I could never figure out why you would put yourself through that."

Yibo thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "I could have, couldn't I?" Yibo thought in a teasing tone. He felt Sungjoo nod against his shoulder and he couldn't keep in the laugh.

"I guess, I wanted you to be happy. I was fine doing anything as long as you were happy and having fun. It's nice to see you smile." He looked at Sungjoo but the other didn't bring up his head. "If you're smiling, then everything is okay." He whispered quietly.

"Yibo, you knew you were important to me, I didn't want you hurting like that." He laughed again but Sungjoo still didn't lift his head. His smile drifted away and he tapped Sungjoo's knee.

"Hey. Sungjoo. It's fine."

"It's not Yibo, what if-- what if you didn't go to the dance academy, you would just watch from afar and get farther away until eventually we're strangers. I know that if you never left, you would have never written a note, let alone tell me you love me. Would you really have been content with watching me smile with someone else?" Sungjoo was looking at him now, Yibo saw his furrowed brow and noticed Sungjoo's clenched fists.

"Yes," He answered truthfully. "I wouldn't exactly be happy," He saw something break in Sungjoo's eyes and quickly continued. "I wouldn't be happy," he repeated, "but I would be okay because you're still smiling, you're still Sungjoo." He brushed if off like it was nothing, moving his hands to cover Sungjoo's fists.

Sungjoo stared at Yibo for a long time, he didn't like that mindset, he didn't like how Yibo would practically give up his own happiness for his sake. "I don't want you to do that. I don't want you to be just content. I want you to be happy, I want you to be more than happy."

"Sungjoo." Yibo tried to reason but the elder just rambled on.

"I mean it Yibo. I don't want you to be like that anymore. I want you to be more than happy, knowing that you would give up your feelings just so I can be happy isn't right, it's not okay. I just-- I know you love me but you're sacrificing so much for me. I'm scared."

Yibo tilted his head down to look at his lap, Sungjoo's arms were loosely held around his waist but his hands were still tense. He couldn't help but smile a little.

"Kim Sungjoo are you telling me not to love you? You sound like you don't want me to love you." Sungjoo tightened his hold around Yibo shook his head furiously. "I was just teasing, I love you, don't worry." He waited for Sungjoo to calm down.

"I love you Yibo, and I want you to tell me from now on if you don't like something I do. I want you to complain to me about everything wrong, I want you to ask for things. I want you to be happy."

"I'm already happy."

"You may be happy now but what happens when I do something you don't like? What if..." Sungjoo thought for a moment, "What if I'm too busy with college and ignoring you? You would still keep quiet then wouldn't you?" When Yibo nodded Sungjoo sighed again. "That's exactly what I mean, you would be hurting but you wouldn't say anything. I want you to say something Yibo, whatever, whenever, however, I don't care. You need to tell me when something is wrong or else I won't know. I want to help you."

Yibo stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

"What are you thinking right now?" Sungjoo asked, a bit forcefully but Yibo knew he was just worried.

"I'm thinking about what to say" He answered honestly, managing to get Sungjoo to laugh.

"I'm serious Yibo. I want you to be happy, all the time."

Yibo let go of Sungjoo's hands and moved to stand up, lending his hand out for Sungjoo could take. He brought the other up to his feet and led him towards the trail. He still didn't say anything so they were left in a silence.

"What are you thinking now?" Sungjoo asked timidly, the sun was going down and it was getting hard to see the trail. Sungjoo brought his phone out and turned on the flashlight so they wouldn't trip on anything.

"Thinking about..." Yibo started, they finally reached concrete again so Sungjoo turned his flashlight off. They walked a little more and Yibo stopped. Sungjoo didn't know so he almost fell when his arm refused to follow him.

"Yibo?" He backed up and faced the younger. He couldn't see his expression but he felt Yibo's lips on his for the millionth time that day. "What was that for?"

"I was thinking," He continued the answer to Sungjoo's earlier question, "This is so cheesy save me now" They both chuckled before Yibo continued, a little laughter still in his voice. "As long as you like me, and we're like this." He squeezed Sungjoo's hand and the tone in his voice got more serious, "I can't even imagine being sad about anything." Sungjoo smiled and Yibo continued.

"I've never been actually sad about something you've done till you ignored me for someone else. So as long as you like me, I won't be sad about anything." He shrugged and continued walking again.

Sungjoo walked with him for a while longer before remembering the event he was thinking of earlier. "What about when I asked you to do the talent show with me? You didn't like that."

"I didn't, that's true," Yibo said, thinking back to the time, "that was before I liked you, I think."

"You still did it without complaining."

Yibo stayed silent at that, he didn't know what else to say.

"Yibo, promise me you'll talk to me when I'm doing something that's bothering you, please. Is it really that hard to do?" Sungjoo stopped before they could turn the corner to their col de sac, not giving Yibo a chance to run.

"I just... I love you. I can't complain to someone I love." Sungjoo wanted to tell him that he complains to his mother all the time but that wouldn't be true.

'He really doesn't complain to the people he loves.' Sungjoo realized then suddenly he hugged Yibo again.

"Do it for me?" He tried one last time and was shocked by Yibo's answer.

"Fine."


End file.
